Sunday, May 20, 2012

Day 14 - 20th May 2012

Photograph 3 - The Pentagon - the particular side where the aircraft deliberately was flown into on 9/11. Taken from the memorial. Note the dark coloured slabs on the memorial wall. They represent the birth years of the victims. If you look down each year the metal tracks lead to individual people who died. It's starts from 1936 up to 1998. More about his in the narrative below.

Photograph 4 - The Pentagon Memorial. Each victim has an indivdual site. One can sit on the raised portion (nobody does) and underneath is a small pool to reflect on. The site is sad and one cannot imagine the events that occurred on thst infamous day. Anne and I feel for the Amercans and share their grief...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Our United States Airlines departed on time at midnight and arrived in Washington DC at 7:15am. The plane was fully booked and we called this particular airlines the "bare bones" airlines. The aircraft was old (an A320 Airbus) they gave us no pillows, no blanket, no video screens (therefore no entertainment), no reclining and non-cushioned seats and no food (except for a can of soda pop). You have to pay for each "checked" bag therefore most American passengers bring into the cabin two or more decent sized bags that just or take up most of the overhead luggage racks. Anne and I saw the funny side of the flight and manage to get about one hour's sleep. We did have one of those travelling pillows that we purchased back in Honolulu - they are a good invention. We took a taxi to our B&B located within walking distance to the White House and left our bags with the owner. He is a African American and a good bloke. Our room was not going to be ready until 3pm (it was 8:30am at the time of arrival) therefore we walked to Union "Amtrak" Station to exchange our forthcoming rail vouchers for tickets. Hence we boarded the local metro to the Pentagon. Washington DC is an easy city to travel around. The metro is easy to use and covers most areas. Our B&B is located close to everything and is liken to Darlinghurst to the Sydney CBD. Now about the Memorial site at the Pentagon. One is restricted to take any photographs of the building. In fact there are many armed Pentagon Police patrolling the grounds inside and outside the complex. However, the memorial site appears to be okay for cameras. As you can see in the pictures there are dark slabs that are inscribed the year that each individual were born. From that slab there are stainless steel tracks that lead to each victim's special site. We noted that there was a 1936 victim (he was a CAPT USN retiree). The youngest was a 3 year old boy who must have been with his parents on that fateful day. The majority of victims were civilians. It is sad that more emphasis is on the NYC WTC people where the majority of victims died than the Pentagon and Shanksville PE victims. Anne and I posed our thoughts and prayers to those people and their loved ones. It was about noon when we were extremely tired and managed to return to our B&B. Thankfully our room was ready and we slept for four hours. This was our worst part of our holiday in regards to our travels with an overnight flight - for the remaining days our travels will be in daylight hours (except our day returning to OZ). For dinner our B&B host recommended to have dinner at a nearby hangout called "Busboys & Poets". It was a good choice. It was next door to Safeways and noted the groceries. alcohol and just about everything is half the cost of what it is in Woolies Penrith. I am now signing off drinking a can of Sierra Nevada can of beer and working out tomorrow's agenda. Hopefully I will convince Anne in hiring a tandem push bike and pedalling aound the National Mall - wish me luck!!! Cheers..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY COMMENTS OR EMAILS FROM AUSTRALIA. ACCORDING TO THE ADMIN AREA WITHIN THIS BLOGSPOT WE ARE RECEIVING AN AVERAGE OF 20 HITS PER DAY. PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING BACK IN OZ AND GIVE US ANY NEWS...ANY NEWS - EITHER THROUGH THE COMMENT BOX OR BY EMAIL. MANY THANKS.